I plan to leave my mark on the baseball world; this is where it all begins.

Results tagged ‘ Joba Chamberlain ’

When Manny Ramirez said that upon signing his contract with the Dodgers, I don’t know how much he really meant that. Then again, why should I even consider trusting Manny? He hates me anyway. Manny, the catalyst of the Dodgers lineup, and one of the biggest reasons that they have the best record in the majors, is suspended for fifty games.

The Manny that a year ago today, I would have proclaimed my love for him and would have defended him against any accusations. The many whom I made a statue of in my seventh grade art class. I plan on destroying it tomorrow (expect pictures). I don’t know the entire story, but when I turned on MLB Network yesterday, I was shocked

Much as I hated to admit it, Manny still had a place in my heart, even though I didn’t want to allow him one. I loved him unconditionally, and it’s kind of hard to get over something like that, but this helped. I’m sure most of you know my steroids policy, and if you don’t, then I am very strongly opposed to them. The fact that Manny has taken any form of PEDs significantly impacts my views of him. I want to believe that he only took these during his time with the Dodgers, and not during his Red Sox legacy. I don’t want those records to be tainted. Having this be about him, and not a player that I hate, like A-Rod, and not a player that I’m apathetic towards like Barry Bonds, maybe, hits a lot closer to home.

Anyway, these past few weeks have been tough, because I was extremely focused on studying for the AP exam that I took today. I feel really confident about it though, so I think it paid off. I want to give this confidence to David Ortiz, so he can hit a home run tonight (amen).

This did not stop me from taking an opportunity to attend a Red Sox vs Rays game last Saturday. After my subject test, my father and I embarked on the four hour crusade to Tampa, and returned home around 2:30 am.

We crossed over the bridge that I hate (mainly because my father told me how it collapsed years ago WHILE we were on it). We satisfied my craving for a Checker’s hamburger, which resulted in a stiff neck (don’t know if it’s related), and we were at the Trop before the Red Sox started batting practice.

In fact, they were stretching. I have to be honest with you though. I don’t really like the Trop that much. Besides the constant annoyance of the cowbells, that the kind Rays fans behind me kept ringing in my ear the entire night, it just doesn’t really make me feel like I’m at a baseball game, but I suppose it’s sufficient during the thunderstorm season.

I made my way down to the Red Sox dugout where I began my conversations with my extended family. It only takes a few sentences to come out of my mouth for them to say ‘Wow, you’re a diehard aren’t you?’.

It also took only one yell of Dustin Pedroia’s name for him to not only turn around, but also for me to start getting requests from people to yell out other people’s names. I was quite successful in getting players to wave to me. Besides Dustin, Jacoby Ellsbury, Julio Lugo, Nick Green, and George Kottaras also waved. Unfortunately, the security guards did not let me on the field, nor did they let me in the dugout. They were very nice though.

I’m pretty sure I started my ballhawking career. As Julio Lugo was playing catch to warm up, I called his name, and he smiled and waved. After he was finished, I called his name and asked for the ball… and he threw it! And I actually caught it while holding another ball.

I was even successful in attaining an autograph: Nick Green for the third time this season. I guess I just have this connection with Red Sox shortstops. It was especially nice to see Mike Lowell’s home run because I actually took the American History subject test at his old high school.

The next day, when I walked into my history review, one of my friends said, “Wow, you look dead,”. It was worth it.

While I was able to study while watching the Yankees series, I actually had to miss the games against Cleveland to study. While it was nice to see the Red Sox sweep the two game series against the Yankees to continue their perfect record of 5-0 against them, I was quite disappointed that I wasn’t able to see history be made last night against Cleveland.

But before we get to that, I’m pretty sure Joba Chamberlain was insinuating that he wanted to throw at Kevin Youkilis’ head. After all, he did throw at Jason Bay, hitting in the clean up spot, hitting for Youk. It’s not like that game was an easy win though, after all, Jonathan Papelbon did load up the bases in the bottom of the ninth.

I missed history being made, while studying for history. How ironic is that? Scoring twelve runs in one inning without recording an out is pretty impressive, so I think I need to re-watch that. When my history teacher asked me how I felt about the exam, I responded,

“Well, the Red Sox won last night, so I’ll do well.” And I think I did.

I know, it has been a while. I know I didn’t even provide my recounts/experiences watching the first Yankees vs Red Sox series of the year. The reason(s) behind all of this is that I am in the process of studying for my United States History exams. I just took the subject test earlier today, so I don’t feel too guilty about blowing off studying to write this.

Red Sox vs Yankees.

This series was pretty much the exhibition of how most series between these two are. Though the Red Sox did sweep the Yankees, each game was close, and provided an adrenaline rush of a different kind.

My friend, Kathleen, came over for the first one. It was really nice to have our top three pitchers go out against the Yankees. Ortiz warned Joba not to throw at Youkilis’ head, because Joba seems to have something against Kevin Youkilis. He has thrown at his head four times. And though Chamberlain avoided Youkilis’ head, he did hit Jason Varitek, who may look similar to Youkilis because of the beard.

Jason Bay is establishing himself as the clutch hitter of our lineup. To help Mariano Rivera blow his twelfth career save against the Red Sox, Jason Bay hit a home run that just hit the top of the monster to tie the game.

Kathleen called Youkilis’ shot to win the game– yes, the walk-off shot that I was craving. The next game was even longer than the first, and it didn’t even go into extra innings. I’m pretty sure Joba told AJ Burnett to hit Kevin Youkilis, so that he would not have to get into any skirmishes with Big Papi. Anyway, Mike Lowell was the hero of that game.

But the hero of the series? That, my friends, would be Jacoby Ellsbury. We all know that Andy Petite has a wicked pickoff move to first base, one of the best in the majors. But the left hander wasn’t really expecting Jacoby Ellsbury to steal home with the bases loaded and two outs, and neither was Jorge Posada. But he did, and Fenway went absolutely insane.

It was the first time a Red Sox had done that in ten years, and it was all over the highlight reels for the next few days.

The winning streak was broken up in Clevland, thanks to an error by Javier Lopez. Javier Lopez was the antagonist of the series against Clevland. First, an error in the second game of the series so that Mark DeRosa scored from second. I was threatening to pull him off of my fantasy team. And in the last game of the series? Javy did so poorly that the Red Sox had to pull a Nick Swisher. Jonathan Van Every, who what would become the game winning home run in the first game of the series, had to come in and pitch. I’m pretty sure that he is going to be a late addition to my projects. He didn’t really play much in spring training because he either had a sprained ankle, or surgery.

I really am sorry for the lack of updates, and I promise that this one will be more coherent tomorrow. I’m going to the Red Sox vs Rays tonight (four hour drive, woohoo!), and I hope to see Rays Renegade there!

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